Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

argali

[ahr-guh-lee]
See more synonyms for argali on Thesaurus.com
noun, plural ar·ga·li.
  1. a wild sheep, Ovis ammon, of Asia, having long, curved horns that typically form an open, outwardly extended spiral: rare or endangered.
Show More
Also argal.

Origin of argali

1770–80; < Mongolian: female mountain sheep
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for argali

Historical Examples

  • The bows that are chiefly prized, are made of the argali's horn, flat pieces of which are cemented together with glue.

    Travels in North America, From Modern Writers

    William Bingley

  • Argali, r′ga-li, n. the great wild sheep of Siberia and Central Asia.

  • There are several local races of argali, among which O. ammon hodgsoni of Ladak and Tibet is one of the best known.

  • The Argali ranges over the steppes, or inland plains of Central Asia, northward and eastward to the ocean.

  • Indeed, to say that our common sheep sprung from the argali seems a very absurd theory.

    The Boy Hunters

    Captain Mayne Reid

British Dictionary definitions for argali

argali

argal

noun plural -gali or -gals
  1. a wild sheep, Ovis ammon, inhabiting semidesert regions in central Asia: family Bovidae, order Artiodactyla. It is the largest of the sheep, having massive horns in the male, which may almost form a circle
Show More

Word Origin

C18: from Mongolian
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012